OBJECTIVES: The proposed research is to study the expression of transformed properties following infection of human epidermal kerationocytes by the oncogenic virus, SV40. The primary focus in this investigation is the delineation of transformation-associated changes in the expression of the normal epidermal phenotype. Particular attention is to be directed to two interrelated areas: 1) viral determined changes in normal keratinocyte maturation and pattern of growth and 2) cell-to-cell interactions (e.g. the formation and/or disruption of cell junctions) related to changes in the normal patterns of growth and differentiation. In parallel studies a genetic analysis of spontaneously generated variant cell types in populations of transformed keratinyocytes will be undertaken; the purpose is to determine which properties of the transformed phenotype segregate from, or with, the normal (i.e., differentiated) phenotype in isolated clonal populations.